Movement looks good, using finger spread for pivot is a nice touch. Not sure I like your weapon rules, though. I mentioned before that you absolutely NEED to have range limits for all of your weapons, except maybe a few that can only be fixed forward, regardless of whether or not they're "realistic". (And they can be justified: energy and particle beams tend to defocus naturally as they travel through space, while rail gun projectiles would be incredibly difficult to hit enemies with from extremely long ranges). The problem with unlimited range weapons is that limited ranges are the only reasons why you should really bother to actually move the ships. Under the current system, you can just sit there, pummeling your enemy with laser fire until they die. Speed, maneuverability, and good ship piloting do not change the outcome of the battle. Torpedoes and fighters would be useless as well unless you spammed them or launched them from point blank range, because their superior speed wouldn't help to keep them out of enemy weapon range. The enemy would be able to shoot them down as soon as they launch. I would say a range of about 8" for lasers, 12" for rockets? Railguns can keep the unlimited range (railguns would be useful as a counter to cheap missile ships) but need to be forward firing. Weapon fire arcs don't really solve this problem (although they're a great idea), since all you have to do is pivot in one spot to get the enemy into your weapon's fire arc.

My BrikSpace rules on weapons fire arcs are that guns have a 180 degree arc while missiles (what you call rockets in this edition) have a 90 degree fire arc, just in case you were wondering.

Okay, this is the exact reason I'm adding pivoting rules and firing arcs. Weapons can only remain active within certain spreads, forcing ships to move in order to put ships within the field they wish to fire at them from.

I haven't put this into the rulebook as of yet, but it'll be there as soon as I find the time.

I don't think that will be enough. It still vastly reduces the importance of being able to maneuver, and of choosing your moves carefully. Plus, all a player would have to do to win is build a large ship with enough weapons to cover every fire arc. And there's still the missile/fighter problem.

Theblackdog wrote:I don't think that will be enough. It still vastly reduces the importance of being able to maneuver, and of choosing your moves carefully. Plus, all a player would have to do to win is build a large ship with enough weapons to cover every fire arc. And there's still the missile/fighter problem.

I agree, firing range is important, also the further the enemy the larger the firing arc, i'd keep a fleet as far away as possible and annihilate my enemy. how about projectile movement rates, it'll be a pain to track but it'll re-balance the game and have 'realism'.

I think there's no need for all of that. A combination of pivoting, fire arcs, and debris fields will provide enough to facilitate movement.

Plus, realistically, ships only need to do ENOUGH maneuvering to be able to fire.

And I will make sure, blackdog, that large ships don't have enough Cp equip EVERY fire arc with a large weapon. Rest assured. My plan is to have fire arcs another purchasable item. All ships with start with an index-middle fingerspread fire arc from the prow, and beyond that you've got to purchase them and assign weapons. Also, certain fire arcs will have limits on the number of weapons that can be attached to them, etc. I really don't think ranges are all that necessary.

Olothontor wrote:... It's really disconcerting that nobody is nagging me about this. Has everyone just given up on me, or... what?

I get the feeling that what I'm saying is not getting through much. But if you do want me to nag... Simplify torpedoes In the old rules you needed to build ships specifically for them, if i just wanted a ship with torps then I'd need to buy a cargo bay, the launcher AND the torps which wastes room on the ship so to best use them I needed a missile barge.

Okay, the fact that a lot of people jumped on the thread when I posted gives me a bit of hope.

In other news, I'll be back from my D.C. trip this afternoon, and I'll more than likely get back to work on 2e. I'll probably get into furthering the weapon upgrades and adding the actual RULES, which would be handy since a bunch of things have changed since 1e.